New report shows Congress’ favorite BitTorrent downloads

Congress has become gun-shy about putting together Internet-related legislation after the attempt to pass SOPA generated unprecedented public outrage, but Internet piracy is still on its radar.

Still, it turns out that digital copies of pirated movies and TV shows aren't just the subject of committee debates on Capitol Hill—they're also being downloaded onto Capitol Hill computers. A post today in US News & World Report's tech blog published new information from anti-piracy forensics company ScanEye, a company that offers BitTorrent monitoring services in the name of fighting piracy. The ScanEye report [PDF] shows apparently pirated movie files being downloaded via IP addresses associated with the US House of Representatives.

Congressional employees downloaded episodes of Glee, CSI, Dexter, and HomeandAway in October and early November. There are more TV episodes downloaded than movies, but the report also shows downloads of films, such as Iron Sky, which was downloaded by a Congress-owned computer on Oct. 4; Life of Pi, downloaded on Oct. 27; and the Dark Knight Rises, downloaded on Oct. 25. Another download listed is Bad Santa 2, a movie which has not been released yet.

There's no way of knowing, of course, whether any downloads were done by actual lawmakers, or just by their aides and staff. It isn't the first time a report has been released accusing Congress' computers of aiding in illegal downloads though. During the height of the SOPA debate in late 2011, BitTorrent news site TorrentFreak catalogued a variety of content it alleged was downloaded by Congress. That report left off the accused IP addresses and also noted downloads of books and of copyrighted software like Windows 7.

My senior year of college I interned for a congressional office in DC. Since I was the only techy on staff, I was assigned to set up the congressman's official YouTube channel and post videos to it. Most of these were CSPAN recordings of speeches the congressman made, but sometimes I would post clips of interviews he did with local news channels back home. We were never really sure about the copyright status of these. It's arguably fair use to post interviews of himself on his own YouTube channel, though of course the news channel owned the copyright. Anyway, like a good pirate, I installed Orbit Downloader on my congressional computer and typically used that to download clips from the news stations' websites.

One clip from one site however defeated all my best efforts to download it, since they used some kind of obfuscation protocol to thwart most programs that could download flash video files. I told my supervisor I couldn't get the clip, and she asked, "Why don't you just CALL the news station and ask for it?" Of course I am such an inveterate pirate it never occurred to me to simply ask for it. But then I thought, "Hey, I work for a freaking congressional office. Why not?" So I called the news station and 5 minutes later they emailed me a direct link to download the video, and I uploaded it to YouTube with no problem. Go figure.

have any of the people involved received a DMCA notice? I bet they haven't, because DMCAing a legislator would probably result in the problem being addressed immediately, like that "Rachel from Cardholder Services" robocall that annoyed the hell out of the entire country for years with no apparent action until they called a senator.

It was the staffers. The young naive kids straight out of college, who haven't had the bone marrow sucked out of them by politics (yet). The representatives wouldn't know how to use BitTorrent. And even if they did, I doubt they'd find much use for anything they could find there.

It's interesting that there are strict laws about releasing video rental/viewing histories... (Video Privacy Protection Act) shouldn't they apply equally to downloading? Raises the question whether ScanEye could be skirting the law themselves.

Remember IP addresses in a swarm are proof of nothing. It is possible that members of congress are as innocent of illegal downloading as they are guilty of much worse crimes too numerous to mention. After all running a bittorrent client is a bit advanced for political hacks.

It's interesting that there are strict laws about releasing video rental/viewing histories... (Video Privacy Protection Act) shouldn't they apply equally to downloading? Raises the question whether ScanEye could be skirting the law themselves.

the VPPA only exists because a reporter acquired Robert Bork's video rental history after he stated that "Americans only had such privacy rights as afforded them by direct legislation"

I've seen some of the same great stuff. A while back I was being subjected to a lawsuit (I own a facility, someone fell outside, on a patch of ice, in March, in Michigan - amazing that there might POSSSIBLY be ice on any parking lot where we live huh?). Anyhow, during the times when the judge was in arbitration between the parties, I was sitting outside in the courtroom, wasting my day away...

The bailiff was talking to the court reporter, talking about movies. Then he started talking about copies he had made for her, and her friends. And then he started talking about movies which were newer, and which I knew were not being released for a little while longer to DVD. Lo and behold, yet another shining example of a federal government employee (this was the 3rd Judicial Court in Detroit), downloading movies, and flagrantly violating copyright law.

I wonder if he used the Courts WiFi for downloading? And I also wonder if they would be subject to the 'six strikes'...

I've seen some of the same great stuff. A while back I was being subjected to a lawsuit (I own a facility, someone fell outside, on a patch of ice, in March, in Michigan - amazing that there might POSSSIBLY be ice on any parking lot where we live huh?). Anyhow, during the times when the judge was in arbitration between the parties, I was sitting outside in the courtroom, wasting my day away...

The bailiff was talking to the court reporter, talking about movies. Then he started talking about copies he had made for her, and her friends. And then he started talking about movies which were newer, and which I knew were not being released for a little while longer to DVD. Lo and behold, yet another shining example of a federal government employee (this was the 3rd Judicial Court in Detroit), downloading movies, and flagrantly violating copyright law.

I wonder if he used the Courts WiFi for downloading? And I also wonder if they would be subject to the 'six strikes'...

Well shit. I guess someone talking about something is the same thing someone doing it. The only thing that's a shining example of is you extrapolating a conversation you claim you heard.

But don't let solid proof get in your way. Then again, I am talking to a generation of internet users who also say that linking to pirated content doesn't count as piracy because you're not actually hosting the material, so the whole "logically follows" argument probably doesn't smooth over too well.

For the sake of argument, I think it's safe to take his story at face value. If he made copies of a movie that isn't released, it pretty much logically follows that it had to be downloaded, unless you know someone in the movie industry.

Your comments don't add much to the conversation.

LiquidSolstice wrote:

Expected ignorance, judgment, and over-generalization from the comments, received it hook, line, and sinker. Thanks for delivering, guys.

It's not like we don't get a bunch of defense mechanisms from pirates shoved down our throats by the media during any other IP address-based "release". It can't be the fault of the person connected to the IP, but if it's the government......LOLOLOLROFLCOPTER HYPOCRITES OMG REFORM.

Not quite sure what you're getting at but I think the correct response here is that Congress critters like to think that an IP address is proof that a specific person did something. If they like that idea so much, let's roll with it and specifically blame them when their IP address pops up when they're downloading movies. I personally think it's more likely aides or whoever are the real ones doing the downloading but let them see what it's like blaming an IP address and not a person. (There's some parallel here to "corporations are people too"; "IP addresses are people too.") Maybe they'll realize, in turn, that an IP address does not specify a person and we can drop stupid things like the Six Strikes program. Too often the assholes making the rules just don't understand what it's like living under them and why they're good/bad.

That said, Representatives downloading crap doesn't surprise me. It's human nature to want to get away with things when you know you can, especially to those in power. It does disgust me for sure, but there's little to do except raise a stink and get people to realize what hypocrites they are. (That doesn't actually accomplish anything but when has Fox News raised commentary that really matters, and we all know what kind of stink they manage to raise.) Mainstream media surely won't cover stories like this. I'd love it if large tech companies like Google would create some kind of evangelism arm to get the word out of relevant tech stories to the public at large.

I've seen some of the same great stuff. A while back I was being subjected to a lawsuit (I own a facility, someone fell outside, on a patch of ice, in March, in Michigan - amazing that there might POSSSIBLY be ice on any parking lot where we live huh?). Anyhow, during the times when the judge was in arbitration between the parties, I was sitting outside in the courtroom, wasting my day away...

The bailiff was talking to the court reporter, talking about movies. Then he started talking about copies he had made for her, and her friends. And then he started talking about movies which were newer, and which I knew were not being released for a little while longer to DVD. Lo and behold, yet another shining example of a federal government employee (this was the 3rd Judicial Court in Detroit), downloading movies, and flagrantly violating copyright law.

I wonder if he used the Courts WiFi for downloading? And I also wonder if they would be subject to the 'six strikes'...

Not surprising. A lot of people don't even know what copyright is. And even some who supposedly follow the "Thou shall not steal" engage in it.

He was raising a point about the baliff talking about copyright infringement.

LiquidSolstice wrote:

There's a site called techdirt.com that will fool you into thinking it is about tech when in reality it is only about copyright, piracy, and reasons why the government is wrong about everything they do in the digital zone. That should satisfy what you're looking for.

I said I wanted a source that was correct and seeks to inform. You can assume I want a conspiracy website but you'd be wrong.

I've pirated stuff in the past. There were multiple reasons and one of them was that I wanted free stuff. One of the others is because I was outraged at the stupid DRM measures on the product and wanted to show my displeasure by downloading it instead of buying it. A long time ago I was part of a group that was trying to crack some software. They gathered a bunch of people to help. Half the people said they just wanted the challenge and the other half just wanted free stuff. Maybe the people you talk to are just pathological liars?

On the Internet, people are going to say they pirate because of greedy media companies. What this really means is that they want the item, they just don't want to deal with the bullshit that comes with purchasing it legit. They would pay but sometimes it's a better customer experience to pirate than to buy. I once bought a CD that, when inserted into my dedicated CD player, played fine. When I inserted the CD into my computer, it installed software and popped up a CD player that absolutely crippled the quality of the audio. The redbook audio tracks were otherwise hidden from the PC. At this point it was too late to pirate it but I figured out why my PC couldn't see the audio tracks, fixed it, and ripped that shit. What would someone else have done who couldn't have figured out that it was the CD drive, which was new, that was properly reading extra disc info? This problem can be fixed with either a black marker or using an older CD drive. They might have claimed the disc was shit or their computer broken.

I've pirated stuff in the past. There were multiple reasons and one of them was that I wanted free stuff. One of the others is because I was outraged at the stupid DRM measures on the product and wanted to show my displeasure by downloading it instead of buying it. A long time ago I was part of a group that was trying to crack some software. They gathered a bunch of people to help. Half the people said they just wanted the challenge and the other half just wanted free stuff. Maybe the people you talk to are just pathological liars?

It's refreshing to hear that, I just wish that open no-bullshit style of stating one's motives was more pertinent.

now im fully aware of the 'Australia tax' which is levied on all sorts of hard and software. but coming from the other direction, from the US, from Congress no less, where the nation is awash in media, has Hulu (which i believe still doesnt have a footprint here) etc etc - that boggled my mind. im betting an aussie intern was responsible in that instance, as i suspect it doesnt have any legit rebroadcast option in the states (just like theres few options for a lot of otherwise legit Hulu content here).

but hells that is funny. calling it a soap opera is being kind BTW, i have for two decades regarded it as trash and its been on a slide for at least the last 15......

definitely a case of one rule for thee and another for me. i wonder how 256K service would go on the hill if the 6 strikes rule actually hit Congress? im sure the squeals of outrage would put one in mind of a stuck pig....fat chance of that happening, i suspect. a nice daydream tho.

Not surprising. I worked at a smaller game studio once. While it was actively suing people for downloading its products, the employees openly shared the latest triple A games among themselves - and the whole company used content creation software from Adobe or Autodesk without licences.

Given the state of current discourse, I didn't think our lawmakers knew how to use BitTorrent...

They don't but their aids do.

And this is what it boils down to. I used to work at an ISP which leased these lines, and I can tell you that it's probably not senators, but their staff, which may consist of interns, insecure wireless access points, VPN connections, or someone's kid who sits with them because mommy can't afford daycare after school and she'll be DAMNED if her kid sits at home alone and hangs out with those drug addicts from Deanwood.

IP addresses mean nothing. It could be an IP leased by the same people who buy a /27 subnet for the White House, but some of those IPs are actually somewhere else in the DC area.